Support Adam Payne, BKB Community Member

Adam Payne is a core community member here at Brooklyn Boulders looking to raise funds so he can be more mobile and live a healthier lifestyle. Donate to his Reach Your Potential campaign today!

Adam with his ABS Nationals gold medal.

You’ve seen him around BKB– whether he’s smiling and waving, climbing with Adaptive Climbing Group, or comically cussing out climbing instructor Luke Livesey. Adam’s one of our top wall warriors: he always gets up, and he always tries his hardest until he’s crushed the problem and won.

As the current defending gold medal champion for the USA Climbing Adaptive National Championships 2015, Adam has climbed all over the world and throughout America. For all the fighting spirit and go-hard cheer he’s brought to BKB, we have a chance to return the invaluable favor.

Adam is currently raising funds so he can move faster and healthier off the wall:

I consider myself to be an athlete, for which reason I won’t even consider a motorized wheelchair until I absolutely need one. While I am strong, though, disease has made me quite clumsy. Typically when pushing a wheelchair you need to take your hands off the rims to reposition them, but when I take my hands off the rims they don’t want to go back on. The Wijit system has two lever handles attached the wheels which are pumped back and forth, so with a Wijit I would never have to reposition my hands. I could comfortably go up the many hills in my part of Manhattan, and wouldn’t have to burn my hands on the rims going downhill.

Adaptive Climbing Group National Competition | Adam Payne

Mind Over Matter: Adam Payne, Ataxia, and Asshats.

Adam Payne is not your classic dirtbag climber.
A New Jersey native, he spent a majority of his life as a cyclist, riding 100 mile stretches at time. He was also a climber until he was diagnosed with ataxia, a rare degenerative disorder that affects movement and speech, in 1997.

VIDEO: What is Adaptive Climbing?

Watch this video and learn about how badass adaptive climbers are. Become a part of the adaptive climbing community today: volunteer, or donate to HELP US SEND ACG to this season's national competition!